Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind

On the surface, a lighting industry transition from incandescent to LED bulbs isn’t exactly the most exciting news in the world. However, something this simple may have far reaching impacts on global energy consumption.

Viewed as being similar to the film industry’s transition from conventional film to digital cameras, the lighting industry is getting ready for its next big revolution since Thomas Edison came on the scene. LED lights represent a large step forward in terms of efficiency and longevity. A LED bulb producing 60 watts will use 80 percent less energy than a conventional bulb. Even on a small scale, like a house, replacing every normal light bulb with an LED would represent significant savings over time. Now, multiply that by every light bulb in, say, New York City. Or every bulb in New England. Or how about the roughly 1 billion conventional incandescent light bulbs in the United States. The potential energy savings is immense.

Since LED bulbs operate entirely different from their incandescent counterpart, their longevity is significantly increased. The average LED light bulb will be able to last almost 20 years. Imagine screwing one of them in and not having to replace it for the first time until your child has almost graduated college.

So what’s the hold up, right? Why haven’t we been given this money and energy saving wonder yet? The main reason is money. Up until recently, the technology was too expensive to realistically offer anything to the general public. Even now, with the technology as evolved as it is, Philips will debut its LED bulb sometime in 2010 at 20 dollars a piece.

Currently there are a number of government programs and companies who are trying to increase awareness of these new bulbs so that we can all begin to incorporate them in our homes and businesses. Hopefully, with technologies constantly improving, that awareness will spread and LED light bulbs will become a very practical and environmentally friendly part of our lives in the near future.

To read the original article, please go to http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/01/26/the-light-bulb-goes-digital/?section=magazines_fortune